The moon was shining, showing its full glory; it was a night of a full moon night. Usually, Rudra would lie on the roof of the orphanage and listen to his favorite songs to enjoy the beauty of this world. However unlike unlike the other nights, today all he could hear was the cries of the helpless, and all he could see was blood that stained his home.
"There's just 5 minutes left till the shield duration is over. Why do you still keep fighting me even though you know it's just pointless in the end?" said the masked man, and he recovered from the last hit. He was still feeling the pain, but he wasn't seriously injured.
"You will not be able to enter the orphanage even after 5 minutes," Maria smirked as if she still had many tricks up her sleeve.
'I don't have much time left, nor do I have much energy. With this attack, I will have to kill this man once and for all.' Maria thought as she pulled the halberd back, aiming to throw it towards the masked man once more. As she started gathering spiritual power on the Halberd, once again, all the phenomena started occurring that had happened when she killed the wyverns.
"Oh? We are getting serious, are we? Alright, I will play along with your little game." Seeing Maria preparing to launch a very strong move, his eyes narrowed as he started feeling nervous. However, he managed not to show any sign of weakness to his enemy.
'To think that I would have to use the skill that I learned just a few days ago,' thought the masked man as he gripped his sword tightly. With doubts filling his heart, he didn't take a defensive stance as he decided to attack instead.
"HOLY LANCE"
"BLOOD RAIN"
BOOM
Both of them shouted using the name of their skill. When the skills collided, it created a loud noise; the noise was so loud that people from miles away could have probably heard it. Meanwhile the area where the abilities collided, a large crater formed on the ground. The destruction that it brought was unimaginable; even the people who were fighting stopped and looked back. All of them were curious as to what the outcome would be. At first, no one was able to see anything because thick smoke covered the area.
"Look, she is fine," said one of the injured civilians as he pointed his finger towards Maria, who cleared the smoke around her by swinging her Halberd. She looked fine as she just had small cuts on her body; however, you wouldn't be able to say the same for the masked man.
"Do you wish to continue this fight?" Maria asked as she looked at the masked man who had lost one of his legs, along with his arm, which he used to wield his sword with. Blood was gushing out of his body as he looked exhausted. He would have already fallen to the ground if it weren't for his willpower. Even when he had lost his limb, he was still composed enough that he was still able to use magic. Everyone who saw him in this condition had chills run through their spines.
"Heh, you think it's over? It's just begun; I didn't want to use this; however, you leave me with no choice." Masked man said as he rummaged through his pockets, he took out a pill from his pocket. The pill was totally dark red in color. Maria could instantly feel the Spiritual power pulsating through the pill.
'I can't let him....' Maria thought as she instantly rushed towards the man in without hesitating for even a second. In an instant, she was right in front of the man; however, he was unable to stop himself from consuming the pill. This didn't stop her as she started swinging her Halberd towards the masked man in an attempt to try to kill him.
"HEHEHEHEH....HAHAHAHA, it's too late now, you can do nothing about this. You should have listened when I was asking you nicely." The masked man started laughing maniacally as his entire face slowly started turning dark red. Maria was still trying to cut him down; however, no matter how many cuts she made, they healed in an instant.
'What is going on? Why does he have such a crazy regeneration ability? What kind of pill was that?' Maria's head was instantly filled with a lot of questions as she still swung her halberd. All of her efforts were being meant for nothing, as even his limbs that she had cut off were slowly starting to regenerate.
"Use the pills you have this instant." The masked man ordered, and as soon as his people heard him, they started consuming pills as well.
"Follish Valkyrie, you shall be the first one who is going to witness the grace of our god," said the masked man who had already fully regenerated. Maria could feel the sinister spiritual power radiating from him; it was as if, in just a moment of time, the man was able to increase his spiritual power by 25 percent.
"UGGGHHH..." In an instant, without any warning, the masked man lunged towards Maria. Mara was unfortunately unable to match the man's speed as she was caught by him instantly. Maria groaned as the masked man squeezed her throat. Before she could react, Maria was flung towards the ground.
Bang
Maria collided with a house nearby as she broke through the walls. As a result of that, Maria had broken a lot of the bones in her body. She had to stop there in the ruins as she was unable to feel her body for a few seconds. Every second she waited there felt like an eternity as she was constantly hearing the cries of her fellow nuns as well as the civilians. Many of the Nuns started dying as they could no longer match the power that the masked man possessed.
'This is not hopeless, we still have a hope.' Maria said to herself as she tried to console herself, she had almost lost all hope; however, she remembered something in that moment. Instantly after remembering, she got up she went towards Sister Amber rather than the masked man.
"Oh, you think running with you tucked in will help you in any way?" the masked man asked as he snickered. He was enjoying seeing Maria running away like that.
"Amber, were we able to make contact?" Maria asked as she looked at Sister Amber with hope.
"Yes, Sister," Amber replied solemnly.
"How long till the backup arrives?" Maria asked impatiently, as she had finally found a ray of hope.
"If they are early, they will reach here in 30 minutes; if late, in an hour," said Sister Amber, who still didn't have much hope in the situation. In contrast, Maria almost seemed joyful as she heard the news, which confused Amber, but she didn't ask any questions.
"Oh, it seems it's time for the shield to finally be broken." The masked man said as he was standing in front of the orphanage gate. The shield that was active until now was suddenly starting to flicker, which indicated that the shield duration was almost over.